This is an early look at the new random planet system with procedural craters.

This may or may not be in the initial release of Universe Sandbox 3.0 as it's still very experimental. However when released this feature will require a graphics card that can run shader model 3.0 (so most computers from the last 5 years). You'll still be able to run Universe Sandbox on older DirectX 9 video cards, but with reduced functionality and visual flare.

Awesome! Was that planet generated? It looks really nice!I have several questions to ask, and they might have been already asked. But I'm not sure if they were answered.1. Will planets simulate effects of temperature and other factors?(e.g. Earth's oceans freezing due to increased distance from the sun; Earth's ocean boiling away due to heat or a huge cosmic collision.)2. About that fluid particle simulation you're implementing, will you use it for simulations of collisions, seeing the materials of the bodies go everywhere? (You may have talked about it before, and I'm sorry if you did. I didn't catch what you said if so.)3. About the landing feature, will you be able to actually move about on a planet? And will the atmospheres simulate a sky? (It may be obvious, but I want to make sure.)Thank you for taking the time to read this.

1. Will planets simulate effects of temperature and other factors?(e.g. Earth's oceans freezing due to increased distance from the sun; Earth's oceans boiling away due to heat or a huge cosmic collision.)

Probably not in the initial release, but this is something I'd like to eventually do.

2. About that fluid particle hydraulics you're implementing, will you use it for planets, such as simulating the effects of huge collisions?(You may have talked about it before, but I'm not sure.)

We're working on two methods of handling collisions. SPH and a much less computationally expensive method (similar to how collisions are currently handled, but much more impressive and realistic). Our implementation of SPH is still very experimental so we'll see... The idea is that you will be able to use SPH for planets, probably, eventually.

The video would be of me changing values, not actually impacting the planet. We'll get there...

The disadvantage of starting from scratch is that we're having to implement everything that was already working. The advantage is that the internal workings of the simulator (the code) is so much more robust and future-proof. So while we are wanting to add new features we also have to add all (or most) of the features that already exist.

Probably not in the initial release, but this is something I'd like to eventually do.

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We're working on two methods of handling collisions. SPH and a much less computationally expensive method (similar to how collisions are currently handled, but much more impressive and realistic). Our implementation of SPH is still very experimental so we'll see... The idea is that you will be able to use SPH for planets, probably, eventually.

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Move around on a planet... eventually (planned, but not implemented).Not sure about how well we're going to handle skies yet... something like that eventually.

No problem. Don't worry, this program will still be awesome either way, and I can't wait to get my hands on procedural planet generation. Thank you for replying.

They are still implementing this new feature, so maybe generated planets will have the same visual effects as non-generated planets. Just give them time. By the way, that planet doesn't look like Earth at all.